Section 25 continues the travelogue of Dongmen City

"I didn't expect that you, Liu Sanye, are not only a famous doctor, but also proficient in the art of Tao Zhu."

"The third master is indeed a strange person," the steward praised sincerely, "Runshitang can have today's situation, thanks to the help of the third master." ”

"In this way, Australians have some skills."

"Who's to say it isn't? Farming, working, fighting, building houses, buying and selling, everything, there are better ones, they don't know. ”

"Let's go, find a place to rest." Li Luo said by the fan.

Gu Baocheng knew that his uncle's intention was to do business with Australians, but when he arrived at the place where Australian goods were wholesaled, he was unmoved, and he felt strange, so he hurriedly reminded Li Luoyou.

"Out of the way." Li Luoyou shook his head, "This is a place to do wholesale for small customers, let's just take a look." Li Luoyou had another plan, he originally came to meet the Australians to talk about business, and the Australians would definitely give themselves a much larger discount. Li Luoyou believed that the resources in his hands were enough to kill the price of the Australians.

Just as he was about to go out, he heard a commotion at the door, and saw a female man in a blue cloth skirt waving a small pennant and leading a dozen people to rush in from the gate.

"Come, ladies and gentlemen, this is the largest commodity wholesale market in Lingao -- the cooperative's head office has more than 1,000 kinds of goods. up to the mirror used by the queen's mother, down to the pickles eaten by the common people...... Hello everyone, haode look, all kinds of Australian goods are available, buy back you can make money to go to Lingao is not easy, don't buy more goods sorry for your two legs......"

The female guy was holding a triangular paper tube and waving a pennant while yelling. Followed by a group of vendors, when they first came to such a magnificent shop, they couldn't help but be a little afraid when they looked around.

"Let's have a cup of tea first, you're welcome, watch slowly, choose carefully, there is time." As he spoke, there were already female ladies who brought trays of cups with hot tea, herbal tea, kombucha, and kvass, so that the small traders who got off the boat and queued up for a long time after customs and sat in ox carts for a while relieved themselves.

These are the small traders who came to sell high goods, since the rescue of the five-masted ship of the Hai family, the traders on board at that time found a much closer commodity channel, so they later made a special trip to come to the high barge goods. Xiong Buyou, who was in the external liaison department at that time, was interested in promoting the light industrial products of the group, and hurriedly discussed with the executive committee whether to make a "one-day tour of Dongmen City" for these people?

So this one-day tour of Dongmen City has been continued. As soon as the small traders pass through the customs, they will be organized, and a dozen people will pull up specially prepared ox carts and go shopping in batches.

The prosperity, cleanliness and orderliness of Dongmen City have opened the eyes of small businessmen. The dazzling array of various commodities makes them itch even more. There are too many new things that you can't see on the mainland: there are thick "towels" that are gradually becoming popular among urban residents in Guangzhou, steel-mouthed haode sewing needles, snow-white sugar, colorful candies, light, soft and breathable knitted socks, small wooden sticks that can be lit anywhere without flint, and snow-white and smooth paper...... There are also many kinds of food and alcohol that I have never seen before......

The dazzling array of goods dazzled the small merchants, and everyone was thinking about what could be sold for a lot of money. But to buy these things, silver and copper coins are useless, and only "pieces of paper" - negotiable notes are accepted here.

There was a long queue in the hall of the Delong Grain Store, and the small merchants all ran to the Delong Grain Store to buy brown rice chips with silver according to the price of the day's grain, and then exchange the rice chips on the counter for negotiable coupons.

Over time, in order to facilitate customers, Delong has set up exchange points in Dongmen City, and also set up temporary exchange points in some designated stores for the convenience of customers.

In the past, there was only one shopping mall. After the second plenary meeting, this kind of wholesale point was expanded to many places, including the "nationalized" cooperatives, Tianchu Sauce Garden, and even Runshitang joined the system of collecting and using a large number of negotiable vouchers. Yang Shixiang's willingness to collect a large number of negotiable coupons is mainly due to the need to pay for services such as buying machines from the Crossing Group.

There is also a newly opened specialty rattan shop. There are many new styles of rattan that have never been seen before, including a variety of rattan furniture, daily necessities and tools, and Lingao traditionally exports red and white rattan as the largest item. Wu Kuangming felt that it was a pity that such haode resources were only exported for primary products. I specially set up a rattan workshop to develop rattan products. These products have certain particularities, and it is not very suitable for them to be sold by commercial halls or cooperatives in larger display places, so the Ministry of Commerce has opened a rattan store.

The small merchants buy good goods, and each store collects the freight and packs them on their behalf, and then the post office collects and consigns them, and when they get on the ship of Gao Guang Ship to return, the packaged goods are already in the bilge.

The routes of Gaoguang Shipping Line have also expanded from the simple Guangzhou-Lingao to Guangzhou-Qiongshan, Guangzhou-Xuwen, Lingao-Qiongshan and other regular routes. The concept of a fixed liner was introduced. Expand the customer base source.

The Dongmen shopping day tour has gradually become a climate under the vigorous promotion of the crossing group, and the small traders welcome such a thoughtful arrangement. Since the number of merchants who have come to high school to sell goods has also increased, in addition to simply carrying cash to purchase, many people have begun to carry goods to trade. Many goods are now shipped directly by merchants on the mainland without the need for purchases from Guangzhou, which not only meets the needs of the traversal, but also meets the needs of ordinary people for daily necessities. This is also good for the supply of the entire Lingao society - the crossing group cannot always make everything by itself.

Li Luoyou watched with interest as this group of small businessmen commented loudly on the quality of the goods in the store, speculating about how much money they could make, the first time they came, they didn't understand the rules, and they had to bargain, and the female guy just pointed at the sign of "refuse to bargain" with his finger and smiled silently.

Australians not only welcome big deals, but also spare no effort for such small customers. What is the purpose of such a practice? And judging from the introduction of the steward just now and his own opinion, the Australians do not like silver, they want goods - not silk, porcelain, and other popular goods, but ordinary goods: iron, coal, cloth, grain, timber......

He was suddenly shocked - the idea that Australians want everything for the people's livelihood suddenly broke into his mind. When he thought that when Jiannu traded with him, he valued grain and iron tools most of all, and was often willing to pay a large price for them—which was similar to that of the Australians.

When they came out of the cooperative, the steward saw that they were a little tired, so he opened a private room in the cooperative restaurant. Li Mei was checking the accounts in the cooperative restaurant, and when she heard that a VIP had arrived, she came out to entertain in person.

Li Luoyou saw that this "big business" female Australian was only wearing a very simple green cloth skirt, with short hair that reached her ears, no jewelry on her body, and no inch of silk.

Li Luoyou admired Li Luoyou for doing such a big deal, but enjoying it so simply—at least he couldn't do it.

Li Mei had known about the arrival of this Li Da shopkeeper, and this would be even more attentive. The highest-grade bird's nest coconut milk mixed fruit syrup was specially delivered, which was smooth, fragrant and cool, and there were many unknown fruits in it, which made Li Luoyou, who is not fond of desserts, feel very satisfied. As for Quark, his eyes are straight when he eats.

Li Luo took the opportunity to inquire about the internal affairs of the Australians, but although the female Australian had a courteous attitude, she either looked at him or just smiled.

It's still a ruthless character, Li Luoyou thought. According to the steward's introduction, this Li Mei should be a powerful figure among Australians, and she seems to be some kind of "minister". Now that there is a one-sided relationship, it is better to haode to be perfunctory, and maybe she will be of any use in the future.

After thinking about it, the words became very earnest, and he also praised the operation of the cooperative. Sure enough, Li Mei's face showed a smug look.

Seeing that the time was almost up, Li Luoyou made a look, and swept the leaves to prepare, and took out a brocade box from the package he carried:

"Just a little bit of Liaodong's native gifts, I hope to smile." He arched his hand, "There will be many places to be taken care of by Minister Li in the future." ”

"Where do you start, your old lady has seen the outside-" Li Mei smiled like a flower. When I took the box and opened it, it was a ginseng with a whole beard and leaves. Even according to the value of this plane, it is a lot of gifts.

This made her hesitate, and recently she really wanted to buy a few ginseng sticks for herself and the old man to keep for winter tonic. However, according to the regulations, expensive gifts must be handed over, and if you want to keep them, you must buy them at the market price. She wasn't stingy with the money - the ginseng was so good that it would be worth buying it herself. It's that the relationship between the shopkeeper Li and himself is not clear, will it cause any sequelae if he rashly accepts the gift? She is a person who has suffered a loss once, so she has to be cautious in this.

After thinking about it again, I returned the ginseng.

"This gift is too heavy." She said, "Well deserved." ”

Sent it repeatedly, but the other party still politely refused. Li Luoyou used ginseng as a stepping stone, and he knocked on it everywhere, but now the other party actually refused. Quite unexpected.

Li Mei had a perfunctory conversation with them again, and then withdrew. After a while, four cotton pockets were brought, and the pockets were extremely delicately made, and the legs were dense and neat. On the pocket is a font embroidered with colored silk thread: "Presented by the Cooperative Society".

"This is a little bit of Minister Li's heart."

I didn't accept my own gifts, but I gave a gift to myself, and when I opened it, it was the most popular and popular product for Australians, one large and one small towel. The blue and white pattern is dyed very exquisitely.

Although it is a very popular Australian product, it is also quite practical in Lingao, after all, it is a very low value thing. I sent it all the way, I don't know what to pay attention to?

This Australian has a different mind. Li Luoyou had a strange feeling: there was more common language between him and Jiannu, at least he could understand the thoughts of the barbarians. For this group of people, it feels like they can't find the north at all.

"Let's go, let's go shopping again." Li Luoyou waved his fan.

When he reached the intersection, he saw the buildings made of the most haode red bricks, and asked if he knew that this was the place where the market trade was managed. There are people standing at the door, and it's about a yamen or something. But the people at the gate on the steps went in and out, and the people standing on the shift did not stop the interrogation, so Li Luoyou became interested and wanted to go in and have a look.

"There's nothing to see in there." The steward said, "All are places to do things." ”

"No problem, I just want to see how to do it." So saying, he lifted his feet and went up the steps.

This yamen is really nothing to look at, Australians' houses have a lot of glass inlaid windows, so the house is always bright, which makes Li Luoyou, who is used to the dim light in the house, not very accustomed to it, he can't imagine that he can do things in such a house.

In the middle of the room was a large table with three objects on it, one of which was a huge scale. A lot of weights were placed next to it. One is a ruler that seems to be made of steel, and the zuihou is a keg made of iron sheets.

In front of the large table is a sign that reads "Scales". According to the steward, this is a special place for standard scales, and anyone who buys and sells objects on the street and has doubts about the size and weight can come here to review. If you don't know how to use it, there is a special bookstore to help.

Li Luoyou nodded, approached and took a closer look, the size seemed to be different from Da Ming's. If you look carefully, the scale of the ruler is called "meter", the scale of the scale is called "kilogram", there is also a unit called "male stone", and the volume of the small bucket is called "liter".

"These weights and measures must have been brought from Australia."

"It should be." The steward said, "It is different from the scale of this dynasty." He pointed to the "meter", "This ruler is about three feet more than the construction ruler of this dynasty." ”

"That's it?"

"These three weighing tools were set up as soon as Dongmen City opened," said the steward, "Originally, one foot was long or short, and one pound was more or less, and they all said that they were the most accurate." With these three kinds of weighing tools, there is an accurate head, and there is no dispute about the length of the business - if you are not convinced, come here to weigh and measure. Everyone thought it was convenient, so they used it. ”

Private weights and measures. Li Luoyou added another charge to the Australians, turned around, and saw that a large room on the left side of the atrium was separated from the atrium by a half-height wooden fence, and there was a door on the fence, which was now locked. Inside is a long table arranged in the shape of a horseshoe. The table in the middle is high above. On the wall behind the table in the middle hangs a huge wood carving, somewhat resembling a European coat of arms. Above is a red sun, with the scales in the middle and the waves below.

"It's like a courtroom." Quark said suddenly.

This reminds Li Luoyou that it is indeed very much like the court of Europeans. When I asked, it was indeed a "place to try cases", and the official name was "Dongmen City Summary Court".

According to the steward, this court is in charge of all kinds of trivial cases, throwing garbage, fighting, shortages, stealing, and is also responsible for hearing small trade disputes and filling out legal documents such as notarial deeds. The trial is very simple, in a few words, the facts are clear, the verdict will be made on the spot, and more than a dozen cases can be tried in half a day.

If there is no original defendant in a general sheriff's lawsuit, the case will be concluded directly by the court's judgment. For example, if you are caught stealing by the police, you will just go through the motions in court, and after reading the verdict, you will directly pull the labor camp to work as a free coolie. As for the original defendant, both parties have to spend money to buy standard official paper to fill out the complaint. This kind of official paper is in a uniform format and printed in a uniform manner, and all legal documents are written on this paper.

"Do you have office documents here?" Li Luoyou suddenly interjected.

"Yes, yes, but very few people do it, and everyone doesn't understand it very well...... "The steward pointed to a row of frames hanging on the wall," all of which were written on it. ”

"Let's go, let's see." Li Luoyou greeted Quark.

Li Luoyou looked at it carefully, and exchanged a few words with Quark from time to time. Quark can speak Chinese and can't read, which can only be judged by Li Luoyou's paraphrasing.

“…… According to you, these Australians are using European law. Li Luoyou said, "At least this notarial certificate is not available." ”

"Yes, there are these laws. If this was made by Australians, then the person who made the law must be familiar with Roman law and the various civil codes. "I don't know much about the law, but based on what you've said, the Australian justice system is clearly related to Europe, but it's different." He shook his head, "I have a feeling that they should be smarter than we are." ”

"More clever than your homeland?" Li Luoyou joked.

"Hehe, where is my motherland compared." Quark made no secret of it, "An overseas colony can still do this, and the mother country doesn't know what it looks like." I'd love to check it out. ”

When I came out of the management office, the sun was already setting in the west, and the pedestrians on the street had dispersed a little. The streets were empty and quiet. Quark buys small things on the street, saying that he is going to ask someone to bring them back as gifts.

At this time, a sharp whistling sound suddenly came from the air, from far and near, as if some monster was screaming one after another. Gu Baocheng's face turned pale. Li Luoyou's heart sank, and he was about to check where the voice came from. The steward hurriedly convinceed: "It's the whistle that doesn't get in the way." ”

The whistling sounded one long and one short, and it rang seventeen times in a row. Soon after the ring, the road was filled with crowds of people dressed in oil-stained blue coarse cloth. Like a tidal wave, they crowded the entire Dongmen City at once.

Artisans laughed loudly as they poured into the cheap hotels and restaurants. The food stalls on the side of the road also came to their senses and shouted hard one by one.

The Dongmen Market was suddenly filled with a strange smell of sweat, oil and food. The street market, which was once a little deserted, suddenly became lively again.